Mechanisms for Coping With Status-Based Rejection Expectations.

In this chapter, we review a growing body of research documenting the development and consequences of status-based rejection expectations. Rejection plays a central role in the experience of stigmatization (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999; Miller and Kaiser, 2001; Root, 1992) and characterizes an important aspect of threat-related dynamics that include stereotypeRodolfo Mendoza-Denton University of California, BerkeleyElizabeth Page-Gould University of California, BerkeleyJanina Pietrzak University of Warsawthreat (Aronson, 2002; Steele, 1997), stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999; 2002), and race-based rejection sensitivity (Mendoza-Denton, Downey, Purdie, Davis, & Pietrzak, 2002; Pietrzak, Mendoza-Denton, & Downey, 2004). First, we review the conditions surrounding and consequences that follow from expectations of status-based rejection. Although such expectations can arise from situational pressures alone (see Inzlicht & Good, chap. 7, this volume), evidence also suggests that in certain situations, some people are more likely than others to experience threat or apprehension on the basis of status characteristics (Brown & Pinel, 2003; Mendoza-Denton et al., 2002). Further, not everybody who fears and expects rejection experiences similar outcomes (Ayduk et al., 2000; Freitas & Downey, 1998). We argue here that variability in outcomes related to status-based rejection expectations is dependent on individual cognitions and affects that constitute peoples’ coping mechanisms in the face of such rejection.